Wednesday, 12 July 2017

Overground, Underground

Day 2 of the Journey and our heroine leaves the world above ground and descends into the abyss.As creative literature students know, the descent into the abyss is a traditional plot structure.

My descent however was more literal than literary. More particularly, I entered the Williamson Tunnels in Liverpool. This is a labyrinth of tunnels underneath the streets of Edge Hill in Liverpool, dug in the early 19th century at the whim of Joseph Williamson. Nobody is really sure whether this was an altruistic job creation scheme for soldiers returning from the Napoleonic Wars or simply the folly of an eccentric individual.

The facts of how long these tunnels are, how many of them, or even where they are, remain a mystery waiting to be solved. Those that have been discovered have no obvious purpose, and head off in random directions without any clear order. If you visit Liverpool I can recommend a visit to the Heritage Centre

The history of the tunnels and the man behind them have certainly provided me with inspiration, perhaps for an article, maybe also for a story or two. A successful second day.